CIO Bulletin

Cox Petroleum Transport— a family-oriented company that delivers petroleum products for most major oil companies

Advances in exploration and production have helped to locate and recover a supply of oil and natural gas from major reserves across the globe. At the same time, the demand for petroleum-based products has grown in every corner of the world. But supply and demand are rarely concentrated in the same place. Transportation, therefore, is vital to ensuring the reliable and affordable flow of petroleum we all count on to fuel our cars, heat our homes and improve the quality of our lives.

There are many different methods of transportation, all of which are becoming increasingly important. Advances in exploration and extraction techniques (like offshore drilling), mean that oil is being located and recovered from increasingly remote locations globally.

This combined with an increasing demand for petroleum products has resulted in oil extraction and refining and being very far from where people are using diesel, gasoline, and kerosene. This separation of supply and demand makes transportation vital in the petroleum industry.

The transportation of oil is the final step that oil takes before it is distributed to consumers. The transportation of oil is a part of the midstream industry. After the oil has been extracted from the ground, it requires transportation and distribution to refineries and upgraders that convert the oil into usable components.

After refining and upgrading, the usable petroleum products are then transported again to distribution locations worldwide. Thus, oil is transported both in its initial crude form and as a final product.

Tankers, railroads, and pipelines are proven, efficient, and economical means of connecting petroleum supply and demand. Supply-end pipelines and railroads carry crude oil from production areas to a loading terminal at a port.

Currently, the transportation of oil and gas by tanker truck is an essential step in the distribution process worldwide. A single tanker truck will often carry as much as 34,000 liters of product or approximately 200 barrels of oil.

The benefits of transporting oil and gas products by truck are due in part to its availability and flexibility. A tanker truck’s only restriction on the place of transport is the presence of a road allowing for oil and gas to be distributed to diverse locations.

Cox Petroleum Transport is of the best at providing tanker truck transportation and last mile transportation for petroleum products in the western USA. Cox Petroleum Transport is a family-owned business specializing in petroleum product transportation, operating throughout Northern, Central, and Southern California, which is headquartered in Bakersfield, California. The company services the western United States, hauling gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, additives, ethanol, and fuel oils. Additionally, they transport lube oils nationwide including in Canada.

The company was incorporated in 1971 after operating as far back as the late 1960s with only a few local trucks. Now celebrating over fifty years in the industry, they have a proven record of success, stability, and leadership within their market operating over 140 tanker trucks and trailers out of 8 terminals. They provide services to the major oil and energy companies including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Marathon, Shell Oil, and Kroger, as well as many other independent oil and energy companies. Cox Petroleum Transport’s achievements have been based on their core values of integrity, commitment, and honesty, by practicing ethical principles and moral character.

The following excerpts are taken from a conversation with Jeremy Mairs, CEO of Cox Petroleum Transport

Walk us through the journey of Cox Petroleum Transport right from its beginning to the point where it unwaveringly stands today.

Over the years we have witnessed many changes in our industry. In the 1960s, Cox Petroleum Transport was owned by a couple in Bakersfield, CA. It had humble beginnings in those early years, and by the 1990s the business entered a new era of ownership. What started as a small, local, family-owned business grew into a mid-size company. But despite the growth, Cox Petroleum Transport maintained the integrity of being a family-owned business.

While the Mairs’ family continued to purchase the Company, there was a renewed priority on both service standards and safety commitments. Through the success of the changes, our customer base grew which included expanding into new markets. Before long, we were operating in all of California and were considered one of the premier carriers in our industry. Cox Petroleum Transport continued to reinvest in their employees to create a safe and enjoyable work environment.

We are dedicated to the continued advancement within the petroleum transport industry, as we continue to research and develop future services in alternative fuels.

“We have a proven record of success, stability, and leadership within our market.”

Q. What are your service areas?

We service in the 48 states of the United States and Canada.

Q. What makes Cox Petroleum Transport unique in the fuel transport/delivery sector? What’s your company’s point of differentiation?

We believe our achievements are based on core values of integrity, commitment, and honesty. Adhering to strong ethical principles is what guides us to be known as a reliable and trustworthy business.

When it comes to the hiring process, we have created a formidable top-tier hiring process that ensures the applicants we attract meet the level of standards we regard as critical in the petroleum transport industry.

Q. What is your main KPI (Key Performance Indicator) when it comes to transporting your goods?

We analyze our performance through monthly KPIs which include evaluating incident metrics. Every incident requires a thorough loss investigation including a root cause analysis. Information is gathered from every accident, injury, and on-time delivery just to name a few. We set goals each month and evaluate performance in our management team meetings.

Tell us about your fleet drivers and the measures you assess their performance by.

Our drivers are coached and counseled based on their performance each month. A scorecard is maintained and updated for bonus awards, recognition, and potential corrective measures. We gather data from onboard computers, in-cab dashcams, and driver observations. A driver is selected and recognized for “Driver of the Quarter” from each terminal and for “Driver of the Year” annually. Additionally, our company measures the number of safe miles driven and drivers are awarded gifts and other compensation as they hit these milestones.

Our drivers compete and are recognized for their performance by the California Highway Patrol and multiple associations.

Q. What are the key metrics by which the company measures success?

Our company measures success in three different ways. First is providing the highest level of service for petroleum product deliveries. Equally important is providing a safe environment, and an enjoyable and challenging place to work. Third, we are committed to being responsible carriers to minimize the risk to the public and our environment.

Q. Will your company be expanding, bringing on any new solutions that we should be aware of?

We are developing an In-cab scanning solution for drivers, which will result in timelier billing.

We continue to evaluate and implement EDI processes for various data transfers within our organization to reduce errors in data entry and improve efficiencies.

We are converting to a paperless environment and moving more applications to a cloud-based service giving us better flexibility and security.

Q. What does the road ahead look like for Cox Petroleum Transport? Do you have anything new coming up?

We have recognized the need for improvement on social media platforms and web-based activity. A succession plan has been established to reenergize our look and branding. We are in the process of bringing our website and logo into a current, modernized appearance.

Providing top-notch petroleum transport services for over 50 years

Jeremy Mairs is the CEO of Cox Petroleum Transport. His journey started with Cox Petroleum Transport in October 1995. At the time he was working on trucks, but mainly digging up weeds. When Jeremy turned sixteen and got his driver’s license, he worked nights in the Maintenance Shop after school, and weekends as a Dispatcher. He then became an independent contractor, driving his own truck for Cox from 2003 to 2008. This is when Jeremy started to rise up the ranks, starting as a Terminal Manager, Safety Manager, Director of Maintenance and then VP of Operations. 2016 is when Jeremy began buying the company from his father. He has almost 27 years in the tank truck industry and looks forward to seeing what the future holds.